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By Erica Scalise & Theresa Schliep

A number of priests living in Murray-Weigel Hall, a retirement home on campus, have recently been included on lists of priests accused of sexual abuse. The university has claimed that it did not have access to information listing who lives in the retirement homes on campus, operated by the Jesuit Northeast Province.

Bob Howe, director of communications for the university, did not respond to questions on the existence of a list of Jesuits in residence at Fordham.

He said the university “does not generally know the histories” of those living in the Jesuit retirement homes on campus.

A list of Jesuits in residence at Murray-Weigel has been available to anyone with access to Walsh Library, even as allegations against Catholic priests continue to make headlines.

Murray-Weigel said they could not provide The Ram with these lists, and the Northeast Province said they are not available to the public. These catalogs, known as “Curia,” available from the 19th century to 2018, detail the names of Jesuit priests, their dates of birth, when they entered the Society of Jesus and when they left. They also include information on where these priests live, including those accused of sexual abuse.

Bob Howe said the university’s statement from a Jan. 30 article in The Ram remains the same.

“The University has never had control over Murray-Weigel Hall or a regular flow of information concerning its tenants and any allegations of misconduct that may have been made against them,” said Howe.

Catalogs mailed to the university from the Jesuit Order contain information on Jesuits across the nation. They are available to the Fordham community in the Special Collections in Walsh Library. According to the Jesuit order, these catalogs are published and mailed to each Jesuit yearly and contain lists of Jesuits divided geographically by province, house, residence or college. They also contain each Jesuit’s date of birth, year of entry into the Society of Jesus, year for final vows and are compiled for individual provinces.

The most recent catalog from 2018 contains an itemized breakdown of every Jesuit priest in the Bronx. According to the book, 72 resided in Murray-Weigel in 2018.

On Jan. 25, the directors of Murray-Weigel declined to comment when a reporter from The Ram went to the hall and inquired about the catalogs and whether there were any catalogs in the hall.

“This is a private home; I can’t give that to you,” said Margaret Monahan, executive director of Murray-Weigel Hall. “You need to ask the province. You should stop coming here.”

According to the Northeast Province, the information in the catalogs is not open to the public.

“The catalog is not for sale; it’s only for Jesuits. Every Jesuit is mailed one,” said a representative at the Northeast Province via a phone call with a reporter from The Ram. “The catalogs show where Jesuits currently live, births and things like that.”

The Ram has reported on the sexual abuse crisis and its relationship to Fordham in light of the recently released abuse allegation lists from Jesuit Provinces. Clerical abuse has been part of the public consciousness since the early 2000s when The Boston Globe began reporting on abuse allegations and cover-ups within the Boston Diocese. Since then, thousands of cases have been uncovered.